1.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare

2.
National Theatre Munich
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The National Theater on Max-Joseph-Platz in Munich, Germany is a historic opera house, home of the Bavarian State Opera, Bavarian State Orchestra and the Bavarian State Ballet. The first theatre was commissioned in 1810 by King Maximilian I of Bavaria because the nearby Cuvilliés Theatre had too little space and it was designed by Karl von Fischer, with the 1782 Odéon in Paris as architectural precedent. Construction began on 26 October 1811 but was interrupted in 1813 by financing problems, in 1817 a fire occurred in the unfinished building. Coincidentally the Paris Odéon itself burned down in 1818, designed by Leo von Klenze, the second theater incorporated Neo-Grec features in its portico and triangular pediment and an entrance supported by Corinthian columns. In 1925 it was modified to create a stage area with updated equipment. The building was gutted in an air raid on the night of 3 October 1943, the third and present theatre recreates Karl von Fischers original neo-classical design, though on a slightly larger,2, 100-seat scale. The magnificent royal box is the center of the interior rondel, the new stage covers 2,500 square metres, and is thus the worlds third largest, after the Opéra Bastille in Paris and the Grand Theatre, Warsaw. Through the consistent use of wood as a material, the auditorium has excellent acoustics. Architect Gerhard Moritz Graubner closely preserved the look of the foyer. It opened on 21 November 1963 with a performance of Die Frau ohne Schatten under the baton of Joseph Keilberth. Two nights later came the first public performance, of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, during its early years, the National Theatre saw the premières of a significant number of operas, including many by German composers. During the latter part of the 19th century, it was Richard Strauss who would make his mark on the theatre in the city in which he was born in 1864. After accepting the position of conductor for a time, Strauss returned to the theatre to become principal conductor from 1894 to 1898. In the pre-War period, his Friedenstag and Capriccio were premièred in Munich, in the post-War period, the house has seen significant productions and many world premieres. The list refers only to those premieres of the Bavarian State Opera staged in the National Theatre, the Bavarian State Opera had additional premieres also in other theatres. The Bayerisches Staatsballett had also premieres in the National Theatre

3.
Friedrich Schorr
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Friedrich Schorr, was a renowned Austrian-Hungarian bass-baritone opera singer of Jewish origin. He later became a naturalized American and he was celebrated, too, for his appearances as Don Pizarro in Beethovens Fidelio. His voice was powerful, steady, and rich-toned, with a beautiful mezza voce and he placed a special and an emphasis on maintaining a smooth, legato line in his singing, with no trace of Sprechgesang. Towards the end of Schorrs career, his extreme top notes became somewhat wooden, however, the son of a cantor Mayer Schorr, who reportedly had a fine voice himself, Schorr was born in Oradea. He studied in Brno and Vienna with Adolf Robinson and he made his stage debut in Graz, singing there in 1912-1916. Afterwards he worked in Prague, Cologne, Berlin and he also made acclaimed appearances in London at Covent Garden, at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera and the Bayreuth Festival. Schorr emigrated to the United States in 1931 and he lived in New York City and performed regularly at the Metropolitan Opera until 1943. Some of the outstanding Wagnerian singers that he appeared with during his career included Frida Leider, Lotte Lehmann, Elisabeth Rethberg, Lauritz Melchior, Kirsten Flagstad, after his retirement from performance he worked as a director and gave concerts. One of his students was mezzo-soprano Nell Tangeman, Schorr made a number of recordings both in Europe and America by both the acoustic and electrical processes. Most of his records are available on CD transfers issued by various companies, kennedy, Michael, The Oxford Dictionary of Music,985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4 Warrack, John and West, Ewan, The Oxford Dictionary of Opera,782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5 Biography and photographs

4.
Leo Blech
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Blech was known for his reliable, clear, and elegant performances, especially of works by Wagner, Verdi, and Bizets Carmen, and for his sensitivity as an accompanist. Blech was born to a Jewish family in Aachen, Rhenish Prussia, after attending the Hochschule in Berlin where he studied piano with Ernst Rudorff and composition from Woldemar Bargiel, he studied privately with Engelbert Humperdinck. After working briefly in sales, he landed a position conducting at the Stadttheater Aachen in 1893, from 1899 to 1906, he conducted at the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague before moving to the Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin. In 1913, he was promoted to General Music Director, between 1923 and 1926, he took various positions at opera houses in Berlin and Vienna, including the Deutsches Opernhaus, the Volksoper Berlin and the Vienna Volksoper. During and after World War II, Blech conducted at the Stockholm Royal Opera, in 1949, he returned to Berlin to conduct at the Städtische Oper, where he worked until 1953. One of his pupils, conductor Herbert Sandberg, married his daughter Luise, Blech made recordings of operatic and orchestral music for the Deutsche Grammophon, HMV, Ultraphon/Telefunken, Decca, and Elite record labels. Aglaja Cherubina Rappelkopf Gavotte for cello and piano Op. Eine biographisch-ästhetische Studie, Walter Jacob, Leo Blech, ein Brevier anläßlich des 60. In, Josef Müller-Marein, Hannes Reinhardt, Das musikalische Selbstportrait von Komponisten, Dirigenten, Instrumentalisten, Sängerinnen und Sänger unserer Zeit, ein Beitrag zur Berliner Theatergeschichte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der musikdramaturgischen Einrichtungen und der Spielplanpolitik Leo Blechs. Peter Aistleitner, Wolfgang Poch, Günter Walter, Leo Blech, in, Stimmen die um die Welt gingen. Manfred Haedler, Leo Blech, des Kaisers „letzter General“, in, Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kommen Sie in Ihre Heimat zurück, Briefe von, an und über Generalmusikdirektor Leo Blech, andrej Angrick, Peter Klein, Die Endlösung in Riga, Ausbeutung und Vernichtung 1941–1944. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-19149-8, p. 131f, fred K. Prieberg, Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945. Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1, p.490 f, Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2015 ISBN 978-3-95565-091-9 Free scores by Leo Blech at the International Music Score Library Project

5.
Lotte Lehmann
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Charlotte Lotte Lehmann was a German soprano who was especially associated with German repertory. She gave memorable performances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Sieglinde in Die Walküre and the title-role in Fidelio are considered her greatest roles. During her long career, Lehmann also made more than five hundred recordings and her performances in the world of Lieder are considered among the best ever recorded. Lehmann was born in Perleberg, Province of Brandenburg, in 1926 she married Otto Krause, who died in 1939. After studying in Berlin with Mathilde Mallinger, she made her debut at the Hamburg Opera in 1910 as a page in Wagners Lohengrin. In 1914, she gave her debut as Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Vienna Court Opera – the later Vienna State Opera –, which she joined in 1916. She quickly established herself as one of the companys brightest, most beloved stars in such as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. Her other Strauss roles were the title-roles in Arabella and in Der Rosenkavalier and her Puccini roles at the Vienna State Opera included the title-roles in Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica, Turandot, Mimi in La Bohème and Giorgetta in Il Tabarro. She appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival from 1926 to 1937, performing with Arturo Toscanini and she also gave recitals there accompanied at the piano by the conductor Bruno Walter. In August 1936, while in Salzburg, she discovered the Trapp Family Singers, Lehmann had heard of a villa available for let and as she approached the villa she overheard the family singing in their garden. Insisting the children had a gift, she exclaimed that the family had gold in their throats. In 1930, Lehmann made her American debut in Chicago as Sieglinde in Wagners Die Walküre and she returned to the United States every season and also performed several times in South America. Before Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Lehmann emigrated to the United States, there, she continued to sing at the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera until 1945. In addition to her work, Lehmann was a renowned singer of lieder. She recorded and toured with pianist Ernö Balogh in the 1930s, beginning with her first recital tour to Australia in 1937, she worked closely with the accompanist Paul Ulanowsky. He remained her primary accompanist for concerts and master classes until her retirement fourteen years later and she also made a foray into film acting, playing the mother of Danny Thomas in Big City, which also starred Robert Preston, George Murphy, Margaret OBrien and Betty Garrett. After her retirement from the stage in 1951, Lehmann taught master classes at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. She also gave classes in New York City, Chicago, London, Vienna

6.
Vienna Philharmonic
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The Vienna Philharmonic, founded in 1842, is an orchestra regularly considered one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria and its members are selected from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Selection involves a process, with each musician having to demonstrate his or her capability for a minimum of three years performing for the opera and ballet. After this probationary period, the musician may request from the Vienna Philharmonics board an application for a position in the orchestra, until the 1830s, orchestral performance in Vienna was done by ad hoc orchestras, consisting of professional and amateur musicians brought together for specific performances. Nicolai and the orchestra gave only 11 concerts in the five years, and when Nicolai left Vienna in 1847. Between 1854 and 1857 Karl Eckert – the first permanent conductor of the Vienna Court Opera – led the Vienna Philharmonic in a few concerts. In 1857, Eckert was made Director of the Hofoper – the first musician to have given the post, in 1860. Since that time, writes Vienna Philharmonic violinist and president Clemens Hellsberg, in 1860, the orchestra elected Otto Dessoff to be permanent conductor. According to Max Kalbeck, the Vienna-based music critic, newspaper editor, and biographer, after fifteen years, in 1875, Dessoff was pushed out of his position in Vienna through intrigue, and he left Vienna to become conductor of the Badische Staatskapelle in Karlsruhe, Germany. In Karlruhe the next year, he fulfilled the request of his friend Johannes Brahms to conduct the first performance of his Symphony no,1, in 1873 Brahms had conducted the premiere of his Variations on a Theme by Haydn with Dessoffs Vienna Philharmonic. In 1875, the orchestra chose Hans Richter to take Dessoffs place as subscription conductor and he remained until 1898, except for the season 1882/1883 when he was in dispute with the orchestral committee. Richter led the VPO in the premieres of Brahmss Second Symphony, Tragic Overture. 3, the Violin Concerto of Tchaikovsky in 1881, and in 1892 the 8th symphony of Anton Bruckner and it was Richter who in 1881 appointed Arnold Rosé as concertmaster, who was to become Gustav Mahlers brother-in-law and was concertmaster until the Anschluss in 1938. In order to be eligible for a pension, Richter intended to remain in his position for 25 years, Richter recommended Mahler or Ferdinand Löwe to the orchestra as his replacement. In 1898, on 24 September, the orchestra elected Gustav Mahler, under Mahlers baton the Vienna Philharmonic played abroad for the first time at the 1900 Paris World Exposition. He resigned on 1 April 1901, like Richter, citing health concerns as a pretext, in 1901, Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr. briefly took his place, he remained only until 1903. He was most renowned for his Beethoven – he programmed at least two symphonies per season, and complete cycles in 1916/17 and 1926/27 and it was Weingartner who led the orchestras first concert devoted to entirely to the music of Johann Strauss, Jr. on 25 October 1925. In 1927, when Weingartner resigned, the orchestra elected Wilhelm Furtwängler and he resigned at the end of the 1929/30 season because of increased professional demands in Berlin

7.
Arturo Toscanini
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Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for detail and sonority. He was at times the music director of La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a scholarship to the music conservatory. Living conditions at the conservatory were harsh, for example, his diet consisted almost completely of fish. When he became successful, he never ate anything that came from the sea and he joined the orchestra of an opera company, with which he toured South America in 1886. Carlo Superti and Aristide Venturi tried unsuccessfully to finish the work, in desperation, the singers suggested the name of their assistant Chorus Master, who knew the whole opera from memory. The public was taken by surprise, at first by the youth and sheer aplomb of this unknown conductor, for the rest of that season, Toscanini conducted eighteen operas, all with absolute success. Thus began his career as a conductor, at age 19, upon returning to Italy, Toscanini set out on a dual path for some time. He continued to conduct, his first appearance in Italy being at the Teatro Carignano in Turin, on November 4,1886, in the world premiere of the revised version of Alfredo Catalanis Edmea. This was the beginning of Toscaninis lifelong friendship and championing of Catalani, however, he also returned to his chair in the cello section, and participated as cellist in the world premiere of Verdis Otello under the composers supervision. The composer was impressed when Toscanini consulted him personally about Verdis Te Deum. Verdi said that he had left it out for fear that certain interpreters would have exaggerated the marking, gradually, Toscaninis reputation as an operatic conductor of unusual authority and skill supplanted his cello career. In the following decade, he consolidated his career in Italy, entrusted with the premieres of Puccinis La bohème. In 1896, Toscanini conducted his first symphonic concert and he exhibited a considerable capacity for hard work, conducting 43 concerts in Turin in 1898. By 1898, Toscanini was Principal Conductor at La Scala, where he remained until 1908, returning as Music Director and he brought the La Scala Orchestra to the United States on a concert tour in 1920/21, during which he made his first recordings. Outside Europe, Toscanini conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and he toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic in 1930. At each performance, he and the orchestra were acclaimed by critics, Toscanini was the first non-German conductor to appear at Bayreuth, and the New York Philharmonic was the first non-German orchestra to play there

8.
Elisabeth Rethberg
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The German soprano Elisabeth Rethberg was an opera singer of international repute active from the period of the First World War through to the early 1940s. Rethberg was born Elisabeth Sättler in Schwarzenberg, Rethberg sang with the Dresden Opera until 1922. In that year, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Aida in Giuseppe Verdis opera of that name and she also was engaged by Londons Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she sang in 1925 and in 1934-1939. The Salzburg Festival in Austria heard her too, as did audiences in Milan, Rethberg returned often to Dresden where, in 1928, she created the title role in Richard Strausss Die ägyptische Helena. During the latter half of the 1930s, Rethbergs voice lost some of its luster, owing perhaps to the frequent singing of Aida and she retired from the stage in 1942. She made recordings of arias and ensemble pieces in Germany and the United States between 1921 and the outbreak of the Second World War, many of these are available on LP and CD transfers. The most notable records of her art, however, may be the live Metropolitan recordings that include her in complete operas by Mozart, Verdi and these recordings are somewhat difficult to obtain in America because the Met forbids their sale in the United States, owing to royalty concerns. They include Mozarts Marriage of Figaro and Verdis Il Trovatore, Simon Boccanegra, Rethberg was married to the Russian-born Met comprimario singer George Cehanovsky. She died in Yorktown Heights, New York in 1976 at the age of 81

9.
Metropolitan Opera
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The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as The Met, is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager, the music director position is in transition as of 2016. The music director designate is Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the director emeritus is James Levine. The Met was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, the Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It presents about 27 different operas each year in a season lasts from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating schedule with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Moving to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966, performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday, several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera houses, the rest of the years operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015-16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas, the operas in the Mets repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs, the Mets performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, childrens choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians, the Mets roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Mets young artists programs. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New Yorks old established Academy of Music opera house, the subscribers to the Academys limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these old families were loath to admit New Yorks newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Operas founding subscribers determined to build a new house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonicos restaurant on April 28,1880 and they elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, the new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22,1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Musics opera season folded just three years after the Met opened, in its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. Henry Abbey served as manager for the season, 1883–84

10.
Artur Bodanzky
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Artur Bodanzky was an Austrian-American conductor particularly associated with the operas of Wagner. In 1915 he emigrated to the United States to work for the Metropolitan Opera and he was head of German repertory at the Met, being accepted by Toscanini on the recommendation of Ferruccio Busoni. In 1921 he was engaged by the New York Philharmonic as a guest conductor, in 1928, Bodanzky announced his resignation from the Met and was replaced by Joseph Rosenstock. However, Rosenstock received such criticism in the press that he himself resigned almost immediately on medical advice, and Bodanzky was rehired, and remained at the Met until his death. He was approached by Thomas Beecham to conduct at Covent Garden in 1936, when he was appointed to his position at Mannheim Bodanzky was praised as a mature and diligent conductor with only one deficiency, a certain heavy-handedness, a predilection for ritardando. However, later in his career at the Met Bodanzky became notorious for his rapid tempi, Bodanzky reputedly introduced more cuts in operas he prepared than many other contemporary conductors, and it was sometimes suggested that he was eager to finish the opera in time to play cards. H. L. Mencken criticized his abilities as a symphonic conductor, many recordings survive of Bodanzkys Met broadcasts. These include the very earliest Met broadcasts to survive, from 1933 and 1934, featuring substantial fragments of soprano Frida Leider in Walküre, from the recordings, it becomes apparent that Bodanzkys tempi fluctuate greatly, sometimes very fast, sometimes quite slow. In this practice, he is not far from the recordings of such contemporaries as Albert Coates, Fritz Reiner. As to the matter of cuts, it was the almost invariable practice in houses outside Bayreuth at that time. Bodanzky compares favorably with both Furtwängler and Reiner in this respect, in 1944, Szell gave a broadcast performance of Walküre which has been reissued on CD and which, as regards fast tempi and severity of cuts, is comparable to anything of Bodanzkys. Frida Leider praised Bodanzkys outstanding artistry in her autobiography, written after Bodanzkys death, artur was the brother of the noted journalist and playwright Robert Bodanzky. Classical Music in America, A History of Its Rise and Fall, New York, NY, W. W. Norton and Company

11.
Max Lorenz (tenor)
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Max Lorenz was a German heldentenor famous for Wagner roles. Lorenz was born in Düsseldorf, and studied with Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin in the 1920s and he made his debut at the Semperoper in Dresden in 1927, becoming a principal tenor. From 1929 to 1944 he was a member of the ensemble at the Berlin State Opera, appearing also at the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and he sang, too, at the Vienna State Opera. Lorenzs operatic and recital career lasted almost three decades, some of his recordings of operatic arias have been issued on CD. He was also a notable Otello, Bacchus and Herod, Lorenz was homosexual, but from 1932 he was married to Charlotte Appel, who was Jewish and was aware of his homosexuality. His homosexuality was mostly tolerated by the Nazis as a well-known secret, when Lorenz had to appear in court because of an affair with a young man, Hitler advised Winifred Wagner, the director of the Bayreuth Festival, that Lorenz would not be suitable for the Festival. Wagner answered that in case she might close the Festival because, without Lorenz. As for his Jewish wife, Lorenz insisted on being open about his marriage, when Lorenz was away from his house, the SS burst in and tried to take his wife and mother-in-law away. At the last moment, they were prevented from doing so when Lotte Lorenz was able to make a call to the sister of Hermann Göring. The SS was ordered to leave their residence and not to bother the two women, Göring stated in a letter of 21 March 1943 that Lorenz was under his personal protection and that no action should be taken against him, his wife, or her mother. Max Lorenz died in Salzburg and is buried at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Max Lorenz can be heard on CD as Tristan, as Walther von Stolzing, as Siegmund, and as Siegfried. Notes Sources Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, second edition, Max Lorenz at AllMusic Walter Herrmann, Max Lorenz. Media related to Max Lorenz at Wikimedia Commons Max Lorenz at the Internet Movie Database

12.
Bayreuth Festival
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The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a festival to showcase his own works, in particular his monumental cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Performances take place in a specially designed theatre, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the Festival has become a pilgrimage destination for Wagner enthusiasts, who often must wait years to obtain tickets. The origins of the Festival itself lie rooted in Richard Wagners interest in establishing his financial independence, a souring of the relationship with his patron, Ludwig II of Bavaria, led to his expulsion from Munich, where he had originally intended to launch the festival. Wagner next considered Nuremberg, which would have reinforced the significance of works such as Die Meistersinger. On the advice of Hans Richter, however, the focus fell upon Bayreuth which enjoyed three distinct advantages, first, the town boasted a splendid venue, the Markgräfliches Opernhaus built for Margrave Frederick and his wife, Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine in 1747. With its ample capacity and strong acoustics, the house was a good match for Wagners vision. Finally, the town had no cultural life that could offer competition to Wagners own artistic dominance, the Festival, once launched, would be the dominant feature of Bayreuths cultural landscape. In April 1870, Wagner and his wife Cosima visited Bayreuth, on inspection, the Opera House proved to be inadequate. It was built to accommodate the baroque orchestras of the 18th century and was unsuited for the complex stagings. Nonetheless, the Burgermeisters proved open to assisting Wagner with the construction of a new theatre. After a fruitless meeting in the spring of 1871 with the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to obtain funds, Wagner embarked on a tour across Germany, including Leipzig. Societies were established, among other places, in Leipzig, Berlin, despite making direct appeals based on Wagners role as a composer of the new German Reich, the Societies and other fundraising channels were well short of the needed sum by the end of 1872. Wagner made another appeal to Bismarck in August 1873 and was again denied, desperate, Wagner turned to his former patron, Ludwig II who reluctantly agreed to help. In January 1874, Ludwig granted 100,000 Thaler and construction on the theatre, designed by architect Gottfried Semper, a planned 1875 debut was postponed for a year due to construction and other delays. Since its opening in 1876, the Bayreuth Festival has been a socio-cultural phenomenon, the inauguration took place on 13 August 1876, with a performance of Das Rheingold. Artistically, the festival was a success, financially, however, the festival was a disaster and did not begin to make money until several years later. Wagner abandoned his plan to hold a second festival the following year

13.
Hermann Abendroth
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Hermann Paul Maximilian Abendroth was a German conductor. Abendroth was born on 19 January 1883, at Frankfurt, the son of a bookseller, several other members of the family were artists in diverse disciplines. Still an undergraduate, Hermann Abendroths first stable assignment of conducting was from 1903 to 1904, from 1905 to 1911, he moved to Lübeck, highlighting as the Kapellmeister of the Theater Lübeck. From 1911 to 1914, he was the Generalmusikdirektor of the city of Essen and he also became the general music director of Cologne in 1918, and was a professor in 1919. He also was the music director of Bonn, from 1930 to 1933. In 1922, Abendroth was the director of the Lower Rhenish Music Festival and he was invited to conduct in other countries as well, and visited the USSR and conducted the USSR-State Symphony Orchestra in 1925,1927 and 1928. From 1926 to 1937, he visited England and regularly conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, Abendroth is known for performing classical and romantic compositions, including Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner. Nonetheless, he conducted other contemporary pieces in their premieres, for instance for Bartok, in 1934, the Nazi Party seized the city council of Cologne, and the liberally minded Abendroth was promptly removed from the public function and detained. Nonetheless, other personalities of the arts interceded, and Abendroth was restituted into the public function, accepting such charge, Abendroth was criticized for relinquishing his ideals. Nevertheless, he joined the Nazi Party in 1937. In 1934, Hermann Abendroth was appointed Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, replacing Bruno Walter, from 1934 to 1945, Abendroth also was professor of the Leipzig conservatory. In 1943 and 1944, he took part in the traditional Bayreuth Festival, conducting Die Meistersinger, adolf Hitler officialized and organized the festivity. In 1950 and 1954, Abendroth was elected the Peoples Chamber of the GDR for a four-year mandate ending in 1954 as a representative of the Cultural Association of the GDR. Such opportunity would help cleansing Abendroths name, about his Nazi past, Abendroth toured throughout the Communist Europe. He was the first German, invited to conduct in the Soviet Union after the war-, in 1951, he conducted for the Prague Spring International Music Festival. From 1953 to 1956 he conducted Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hermann Abendroth died of a stroke, during a surgical procedure, in Jena, on 29 May 1956. A state funeral was then granted for him, Abendroth was amongst the first German music directors who released studio records regularly. His production spanned from mid-1920s, until his death, nowadays, Abendroth is being successfully rediscovered by a collection of CDs, published since mid-1990s, consisting mainly of his works for the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Leipzig of since 1953

14.
Irmgard Seefried
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Irmgard Seefried was a distinguished German soprano who sang opera and lieder. Maria Theresia Irmgard Seefried was born in Köngetried, near Mindelheim, Bavaria, Germany and she studied at Augsburg University before making her debut in Aachen as the priestess in Verdis Aida in 1940. From then on, she remained with the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera until her retirement in 1976 and she sang at the Salzburg Festival every year from 1946 to 1964 in operas, concerts and recitals. She appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London from 1947 to 1949, and also La Scala in Milan, one of the outstanding singers to emerge immediately after the Second World War, she was noted for her Mozart and Richard Strauss roles. She was also a noted singer and a number of her Salzburg Festival recitals were recorded. She left many recordings of oratorio and sacred music by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, Fauré, Beethoven, Dvořák, Verdi, and Stravinsky. Although she was a soprano, she performed, and recorded, both the trousers roles of the Composer and Octavian in Richard Strausss Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier. These roles are usually associated with weightier voices and today are sung by mezzo-sopranos. She often sang with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who said in interview that Seefried was naturally able to do effortlessly what other singers, including Schwarzkopf herself and she can be seen singing Mahler on a DVD from EMI, with Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. She was married to the Austrian violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan from 1948 until her death and they had three daughters, one of whom is actress Mona Seefried. After retirement, she taught students at Vienna Music Academy and Salzburg Mozarteum and she died aged 69 in Vienna in 1988. The Last Prima Donnas, by Lanfranco Rasponi, Alfred A Knopf,1982, ISBN 0-394-52153-6 Discography Irmgard Seefried 1968, on first of two acclaimed tours of Southern Africa On video singing Strauss Video, Irmgard Seefried sings and conducts

15.
Hans Hotter
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Hans Hotter was a German operatic bass-baritone. He was extremely tall and his appearance was striking and his voice and diction were equally recognisable. Born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, Hotter studied with Matthäus Roemer in Munich and he worked as an organist and choirmaster before making his operatic debut in Opava in 1930. Hotter was unable to pursue a career until his Covent Garden debut in 1947. After that, he sang in all the opera houses of Europe. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the role in The Flying Dutchman in 1950. In four seasons at the Met, he performed 35 times in 13 roles and his interpretation of Wotan was first recorded in a 1930s studio version of Act II of Die Walküre. In Die Walküre and Siegfried he was recorded in Deccas famous Ring Cycle in the early 1960s, conducted by Georg Solti and his interpretation of the role of Wotan was also captured in live recordings at the Bayreuth Festival conducted by Clemens Krauss and Joseph Keilberth in the mid-1950s. He also directed a complete Ring at Covent Garden from 1961 to 1964 and his portrayal of Gurnemanz in Parsifal was preserved on record in several of Hans Knappertsbuschs live recordings from Bayreuth. Also, he was afflicted in later years with a back injury. Similarly, he sang in Parsifal first as the baritone Amfortas when he was younger and switched to the bass Gurnemanz later, and to the even lower bass Titurel after that. He was also celebrated for his Pizarro in Beethovens Fidelio, of which a live 1960s recording from Covent Garden was issued for the first time in 2005 under the Testament label, Hotter had a close working relationship with Richard Strauss. After the end of the war, he also sang Sir Morosus in Die Schweigsame Frau with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karl Bohm, Strauss dedicated his song Erschaffen und beleben to Hotter, who also recorded many of the songs of Strauss. Hotters daughter Gabriele married Strauss grandson Richard in 1962 and he performed, and recorded, several non-German opera roles in German translation, including Count Almaviva, Boris Godunov and Don Basilio. Hotter was also known as a lieder singer and he left several recordings of Schubert lieder, including Winterreise, Schwanengesang, and other songs. According to Hotters obituary in The Times, Hitler kept Hotters records in his private collection, when Hotter was interrogated about this at a postwar denazification hearing, he answered that the Pope had some of them too. He was a narrator in Schoenbergs Gurre-Lieder, a role he continued to take well into his eighties. Bach-Cantatas. com biography Discography Hans Hotter at Find a Grave Audio samples - Der fliegende Holländer Richard Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer -1, Act Richard Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer -2

16.
Eugen Jochum
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Eugen Jochum was an eminent German conductor. Jochum was born to a Roman Catholic family in Babenhausen, near Augsburg, Germany, his father was an organist, Jochum studied the piano and organ in Augsburg, enrolling in its Academy of Music from 1914 to 1922. Jochums first post was as a rehearsal pianist at Mönchen-Gladbach, and he made his conducting debut with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in 1926 in a program which included Bruckners Seventh Symphony. In the same year he was appointed conductor at the Kiel Opera House, after Kiel he went to Mannheim, where Wilhelm Furtwängler praised his conducting. He turned down an offer to conduct concerts with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, believing that his repertory. His next appointment was as director in Duisburg, from 1930 to 1932. In 1932 he became chief of the Berlin Radio Orchestra, also conducting 16 concerts a season with the Berlin Philharmonic, in 1934 Jochum succeeded Karl Böhm as musical director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic. Throughout the Nazi era, Hamburg remained, as Jochum put it, reasonably liberal and he performed music by composers such as Hindemith and Bartók elsewhere banned by the Nazis. In 1944, Joseph Goebbels included Jochum in the Gottbegnadeten list, by 1948, the American authorities had determined that they could find no evidence of his joining any Nazi organizations. To build the orchestra, Jochum recruited highly qualified musicians, including the Koeckert Quartet as the nucleus of the strings, Jochum remained music director of the orchestra until 1961, with it, he made numerous recordings, mostly for Deutsche Grammophon. Jochum was also a regular guest conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, from 1961 to 1963, Jochum was joint chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra alongside Bernard Haitink. He conducted frequently in London, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in 1975, the LSO appointed him conductor laureate, a position he held until 1978. Jochum served as conductor of the Bamberg Symphony from 1969-1973. He later worked regularly with the Staatskapelle Dresden, with which he recorded the complete symphonies of Bruckner and he appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival. He also, in 1953–54 and 1971, conducted at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and he was a regular recording artist, from his first records in 1932. In the stereo LP era, he recorded mainly for Deutsche Grammophon, in addition, he was president of the International Bruckner Society from 1950, and wrote extensively about Bruckner interpretation. Still, according to his New York Times obituary, he said in a 1983 interview, Today, but I began with the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. And it is to their music that I still feel closest and his recordings of Bachs Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion are frequently counted among the finest of these works

17.
Hilde Gueden
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The Austrian soprano Hilde Gueden, or Güden was one of the most appreciated Straussian and Mozartian sopranos of her day. Her youthful and lively interpretations made her an interpreter of roles like Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. She was born Hulda Geiringer in Vienna, and studied singing with Otto Iro, piano with Maria Wetzelsberger and she debuted, as Hulda Gerin, in 1937 in Benatzkys operetta Herzen im Schnee at the Vienna Volksoper. Her operatic debut came in 1939, when she sang Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Zurich Opera, in 1941, the famous conductor Clemens Krauss engaged her for the Munich State Opera, where she sang with much success. From this time she used Hilde Gueden as her stage name, however, she had some Jewish ancestry, and this forced her to leave Germany under the Nazis. Rumour has it that she was almost arrested by the Gestapo in Munich, in Italy, Tullio Serafin invited her to sing Sophie in Rome and Florence. From then on, she gained great successes in Paris, Milan, London, Venice, Glyndebourne and she made her debut at Salzburg Festival in 1946 by singing Zerlina in Mozarts Don Giovanni in 1946. In 1947, she started a membership with the Vienna Staatsoper. In December 1951, she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto, in 1953, she sang Ann Trulove in the first U. S. performance of Stravinskys The Rakes Progress at the Metropolitan Opera. She was also praised for her performances of Violetta in La traviata, Marguerite in Faust and she was a most versatile and accomplished singer. Besides her usual Mozart and Richard Strauss, she was also an operetta singer. Her Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus is considered one of her best roles, in the bel canto repertoire, she became a famous Gilda in Rigoletto and Adina in Lelisir damore. She was also noted for her Lieder and oratorio work and she died, aged 71, in Klosterneuburg. During the 1950s and 1960s, Hilde Gueden made dozens of recordings with the best artists of her generation, following is a selection of her recorded works,1. Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro with Lisa della Casa, Cesare Siepi, Mozart, Don Giovanni with Lisa della Casa, Cesare Siepi, Walter Berry, Sazanne Danco and Josef Krips, Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, rec.19553. Mozart, Die Zauberflöte with Wilma Lipp, Leopold Simoneau, Kurt Boehme and Karl Böhm, Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, rec.19554. Johann Strauss, Die Fledermaus with Wilma Lipp, Anton Dermota, Julius Patzak and Clemens Krauss, Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, rec.19505. Johann Strauss, Die Fledermaus with Erika Köth, Walter Berry, Regina Resnik and Herbert von Karajan, Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, rec.19606

18.
Hans Knappertsbusch
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To this day, his interpretations of the works of Richard Wagner are regarded by many as among the best of the 20th century. Knappertsbusch was born in Elberfeld, todays Wuppertal and he studied philosophy at Bonn University and conducting at the Cologne Conservatory with Fritz Steinbach. For a few summers, he assisted Siegfried Wagner and Hans Richter at Bayreuth and he began his career with conducting jobs in Elberfeld, Leipzig and Dessau. When Bruno Walter left Munich for New York, Knappertsbusch succeeded him as General Music Director of the Bavarian State Orchestra, Knappertsbusch later refused to join the Nazi party. The signatories, who generally held staunchly conservative views, considered the text. Knappertsbusch was a highly educated moderate nationalist and never held a NSDAP membership and he had no sympathy for the Nazis, which he viewed as coarse and uncivilised, and was unusually outspoken in his distate for them. He often came into conflict with the authorities, risking his freedom, hitler himself was involved in the decision to dismiss him. However, since there was a shortage of first-class conductors in Germany, in 1936, Sir Thomas Beecham invited him to Covent Garden to conduct, but his permit to leave Germany was withheld. In the late 1930s he went to Vienna to conduct at the Wiener Staatsoper, in 1944, he was added to the so-called Gottbegnadeten list, which excluded him from military service. Despite his animosity towards the Nazi regime, Knappertsbusch never considered emigrating from his country, being deeply rooted in German arts. When World War II ended, Knappertsbusch returned to Munich, where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life and he continued to guest conduct in Vienna, as well as to make appearances at the Bayreuth Festival. He conducted the first performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival in 1951, the Parsifal of that year, in which Martha Mödl made her Bayreuth premiere as Kundry, remains among the marquee recordings of that role. Mödl, the preeminent Kundry and Wagner actress of the twentieth century and he is widely considered as one of the greatest Wagner-conductors of all time. Artistically, Knappertsbusch was known for conducting very slowly but intensely, emphasizing beauty, gravitas and his personality was modest and straightforward, at the same time forceful and highly sensitive. He was known for being able to conduct with minimal gesticulation at times, conveying his intentions with simply a look, one of his well-known idiosyncratic quirks was his strong dislike for rehearsals, which he avoided whenever he could. Instead, he preferred to more on his instinct and spontaneity. He also didnt care much for studio records, which is why there exists only a small number of them. However, numerous recordings of his performances are available

19.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
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Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, DBE was a German soprano. Schwarzkopf was born on 9 December 1915 in Jarotschin in the Province of Posen in Prussia, Germany to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Schwarzkopf performed in her first opera in 1928, as Eurydice in a school production of Glucks Orfeo ed Euridice in Magdeburg, Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Schwarzkopf later trained under Maria Ivogün, and in 1938 joined the Deutsche Oper and he was also banned from taking any new teaching post. Schwarzkopf made her debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 15 April 1938. In 1940 Schwarzkopf was awarded a contract with the Deutsches Opernhaus. At first, she denied this and then with varying explanations defended it, further publications discussed her musical performances during the war before Nazi party conferences and for units of the Waffen-SS. Her defenders argue in favor of her claim that she always strictly separated art from politics, Schwarzkopf starred in five feature films for Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, in which she acted, sang and played the piano. In 1945, Schwarzkopf was granted Austrian citizenship to enable her to sing in the Vienna State Opera, on 11 September 1951, she appeared as Anne Trulove in the world premiere of Stravinskys The Rakes Progress. In March 1946, Schwarzkopf was invited to audition for Walter Legge, an influential British classical record producer, Legge asked her to sing Hugo Wolfs lied Wer rief dich denn. and, impressed, signed her to an exclusive contract with EMI. They began a partnership and Legge subsequently became Schwarzkopfs manager. They were married on 19 October 1953 in Epsom, Surrey, Schwarzkopf would divide her time between lieder recitals and opera performances for the rest of her career. She was also received as Alice Ford in Verdis Falstaff. However, on the EMI label she made several champagne operetta recordings like Franz Lehárs The Merry Widow, Schwarzkopfs last operatic performance was as the Marschallin on 31 December 1971, in the theatre of La Monnaie in Brussels. For the next years, she devoted herself exclusively to lieder recitals. On 17 March 1979, Walter Legge suffered a heart attack. He disregarded doctors orders to rest and attended Schwarzkopfs final recital two days later in Zurich, after retiring, Schwarzkopf taught and gave master classes around the world, notably at the Juilliard School in New York City. After living in Switzerland for many years, she took up residence in Austria and she was made a doctor of music by the University of Cambridge in 1976, and became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1992

20.
Herbert von Karajan
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Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 35 years and he is generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, and he was a dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the number of recordings he made. By one estimate he was the classical music recording artist of all time. The Karajans were of Greek or Aromanian ancestry and his great-great-grandfather, Georg Karajan, was born in Kozani, in the Ottoman province of Rumelia, leaving for Vienna in 1767, and eventually Chemnitz, Electorate of Saxony. By this line, Karajan was related to Austrian composer of Slovene descent Hugo Wolf, Karajan seems to have known some Slovene. Karajan was born in Salzburg, Austria-Hungary, as Heribert Ritter von Karajan and he was a child prodigy at the piano. From 1916 to 1926, he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Franz Ledwenke, theory with Franz Zauer and he was encouraged to concentrate on conducting by Paumgartner, who detected his exceptional promise in that regard. In 1926 Karajan graduated from the conservatory and continued his studies at the Vienna Academy, studying piano with Josef Hofmann and conducting with Alexander Wunderer and Franz Schalk. In 1929, he conducted Salome at the Festspielhaus in Salzburg and his senior colleague in Ulm was Otto Schulmann. After Schulmann was forced to leave Germany in 1933, Karajan became first Kapellmeister, in 1933 Karajan made his conducting debut at the Salzburg Festival with the Walpurgisnacht Scene in Max Reinhardts production of Faust. It was also in 1933 that von Karajan became a member of the Nazi party, in Salzburg in 1934, Karajan led the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time, and from 1934 to 1941, he was engaged to conduct operatic and symphony-orchestra concerts at the Theater Aachen. In 1938 Karajan made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin State Opera and he then enjoyed a major success at the State Opera with Tristan und Isolde. His performance was hailed by a Berlin critic as Das Wunder Karajan, receiving a contract with Deutsche Grammophon that same year, Karajan made the first of numerous recordings, conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin in the overture to The Magic Flute. On 26 July 1938, he married operetta singer Elmy Holgerloef, on 22 October 1942, at the height of the Second World War, Karajan married Anna Maria Anita Sauest, born Gütermann. She was the daughter of a manufacturer of yarn for sewing machines. Having had a Jewish grandfather, she was considered a Vierteljüdin, by 1944, Karajan was, according to his own account, losing favour with the Nazi leadership, but he still conducted concerts in wartime Berlin on 18 February 1945. A short time later, in the stages of the war, he and Anita fled Germany for Milan

21.
Hans Rosbaud
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Hans Rosbaud, was an Austrian conductor, particularly associated with the music of the twentieth century. Hans Rosbaud was born in Graz, Austria, as children, Hans and his brother Paul Rosbaud performed with their mother, who taught piano. Hans continued studying music at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, under the tutelage of Bernhard Sekles in composition and Alfred Hoehn in piano. Rosbauds first professional post was in Mainz, starting in 1921, as the director of the citys new School of Music. He became the first chief conductor of the Hessicher Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt in 1928, during the 1920s and 1930s, he presented premieres of works by Arnold Schoenberg and Béla Bartók. During the Nazi era, his freedom to present new music was restricted, in 1937, he became the general music director of the city of Münster. In 1941, Rosbaud took the position in Strasbourg, heading the Orchestre philharmonique. In 1945 he was named director of the Munich Philharmonic by United States occupation authorities. In 1948, Rosbauds contract with the Munich orchestra was allowed to lapse because the city wanted to move the orchestras repertoire in a conservative direction. That year Rosbaud became the first chief conductor of the South West German Radio Orchestra in Baden-Baden, in 1954, he conducted the first performance of Schoenbergs opera Moses und Aron at 8 days notice, this performance was issued on a 1957 commercial recording for Philips. He regularly took the SWR Symphony Orchestra to festivals of contemporary music, on December 6,7, and 8,1962, he concluded a six-week residency with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, leading Schumanns Piano Concerto with Eugene Istomin and Mahlers Ninth Symphony. He died less than a later in Lugano, Switzerland on December 29. Gramophone recently remarked that Rosbaud was one of the heroes of mid-20th-century music. Gave thoroughly rehearsed and assimilated performances and premieres of the widest possible range of music, in Fanfare, Peter J. Rabinowitz pointed to range of his sympathies, claiming it was greater than that of just about any of his contemporaries except perhaps Bernstein, Scherchen, and Stokowski. Rosbaud is best remembered, probably, for his Mahler, his Bruckner, and especially his commitment to the post-war avant-garde. But he was a world-class Mozartian, too —and he championed earlier music as well, what’s more striking is that he was able to give his performances of each of these composers an entirely different signature. Rosbaud was a cultured man, widely read and varied in his intellectual interests. Putting himself at the service of music he chose to perform, prominent in his legacy are recordings of the music of Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky and Boulez

22.
Rudolf Kempe
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Rudolf Kempe was a German conductor. Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of fourteen he studied at the Dresden State Opera School and he played oboe in the opera orchestra of Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929. Kempe directed the Dresden Opera and the Staatskapelle Dresden from 1949 to 1952, making his first records, including Der Rosenkavalier, ‘He obtains some superlative playing from the Dresden orchestra, ’ commented The Record Guide. He maintained a relationship with the Dresden orchestra for the rest of his life and his international career began with engagements at the Vienna State Opera in the 1951 season, for which he conducted Die Zauberflöte, Simon Boccanegra, and Capriccio. Kempe resisted the appointment, and did not accept the top job at any opera house after leaving Munich in 1954, as a guest conductor, Kempe frequently revisited Munich conducting mostly the Italian repertory. Kempe’s début at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus was in 1960, Kempe was associated with the Royal Philharmonic from 1955. In 1960, he became its Associate Conductor, chosen by the orchestras founder, from 1961 to 1962 he was Principal Conductor of the RPO, and from 1963 to 1975 its Artistic Director. A member of the RPO later said of Kempe, He was a controller of the orchestra. Kempe was like driving a racing-car, following the piano round the bends. Kempe abolished Beechams male-only rule, introducing women into the RPO, in 1970, the RPO named him Conductor for Life, but in 1975, he resigned his post with the orchestra. In the final months of his life, Kempe was the conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra